Garfinkel was admitted to the fellowship the second semester of his freshman year and has continued to deepen his ties to START, enrolling in its Global Terrorism Minor and interning on various projects.

“CRED has been a very enjoyable program and something that has sort of eclipsed most of my university experience so far,” Garfinkel said.

Although unusual for an Agency Youth Coordinator to work directly with an individual, the need for this platform is clear. In 2015, the UN Security Council passed resolution 2250, recognizing the role youth play in the promoting peace and encouraging further involvement of youth in peace and security issues. In response, Search for Common Ground and UNOY Peacebuilders conducted a study determining that almost 50% of youth-led peace and security initiatives operate on an annual budget of $5,000 US or less. It was in light of this staggering statistic coming up at the roundtable where Garfinkel voiced the initial idea for a crowd funding platform and the project was born. A true case of right place, right people, right time, Garfinkel has worked over the past five months to develop three versions of his concept. Leveraging the connections of the USAID representative from the roundtable, the ground work for a pilot program has been laid with Spark Microgrants, Search for Common Ground, IREX, and Global Giving. They are hoping to launch the platform by the end of this year.

In reflecting on his past two years with START, Garfinkel had a tough time choosing what his favorite experience had been.

Despite all the research projects he had already participated in, Garfinkel faced a new challenge last semester in his Government and Politics of Africa class,. He had to conduct an independent research project throughout the semester, crafting his own research question and coding his own data.

“It was so much different than jumping into an existing project,” he said.

Right now, Garfinkel is focusing on his current projects and enjoying his remaining time as a college student. At START, he and his fellow CRED team members have been working on a literature review of CVE programming with former START research Susan Szmania who is now with the Department of Homeland Security as a Research Analyst. The CRED team is also working on developing campus appropriate responses to hate bias incidents and extremism occurring at UMD based on the CVE framework.